Mamahood Styled

3/19/2011

Mango Salsa Tilapia & Cilantro/Lime [Brown] Rice

Our basket this morning included perfectly ripe mango's and a bushel of cilantro. Immediately, I knew I wanted to try out a mango salsa for dinner. I thought the cilantro could be used in the salsa as well as in brown rice (a la Chipotle)! We have slowly begun incorporating meat back into our diets after one year of being vegetarians (& vegan for two whole weeks, haha)! I cooked arroz con pollo last week and it was my first time cooking meat in a year. It was so weird! It almost tasted fake to us...but who can resist Puerto Rican arroz con pollo?! lol! Anyway, that recipe will probably never appear on here ;)

We decided on pairing the mango salsa with tilapia, since it's a lighter fish that isn't fishy. I searched and edited a few recipes I found and ended up with what you see below. Granted, I used a whole jalapeno and included all the seeds and our salsa was WAY too spicy, even for me!

Mango Salsa

Ingredients

Tilapia Marinade

extra-virgin olive oil for your marinade

1 clove garlic, minced

2 teaspoons dried basil

ground black pepper, to taste

salt, to taste

tilapia fillets (we made two but this recipe would yield for up to four, I noticed)

Salsa

1 chopped mango (let me know if you need tips on cutting one)

1 diced avocado

cilantro, to taste

juice of 1/2 lime

2 tablespoons orange juice

1 finely minced jalapeno pepper- omit the seeds to taste

1/4 finely minced red onion

1/2 red bell pepper

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Rice

EVOO to coat bottom of your pot

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 onion finely minced

cilantro, to taste

1/2 lime, to zest & juice

Directions

RICE: Begin with the rice, if you're making brown rice, since it takes a long time to cook. The same recipe can be used for white rice, and it'd cut cooking time in half BUT does not give you the whole grain that the extra time does ;). Add EVOO to your pan and preheat. Add 2 garlic cloves, 1/4 finely diced white onion and let them saute. Then add the rice and let it brown a tiny bit. Double the amount of water, in correlation with the amount of rice you used. I cooked 1.5 cups of rice so I added 3 cups of water. Lightly salt your water, as it comes to a boil. Cover and lower heat until cooked. Add lime zest and juice from 1/2 lime. Add cilantro (to taste) and fluff with fork!

FISH: Add the olive oil, garlic, basil, black pepper, and salt together in a resealable bag. Put the tilapia fillets in the bag; gently shake. Marinate in refrigerator, until you're ready to use it. You can marinate ahead of time, as well. Once you're ready, you can pan-sear it until crispy on each side.

SALSA: Make the salsa by stirring all the ingredients in bowl. Refrigerate for 1 hour, or as long as you want, to allow the flavors to blend. I used about an hour for everything because I was making brown rice which takes forever!